Faced with the three options given by the system, Ize felt like he was being roasted alive over a fire.
Two S-rank, one C-rank.
It looked like he had a choice, but in truth, there was no choice at all.
He could only grit his teeth and pick the C-rank: “With the risk of serious injury—before Swan wakes up, stealthily get him back to his dorm bed!”
His gaze fell on the unconscious Swan, and that wicked fire born from his own “itchy hands” flared up inside Ize once again.
Without a shred of hesitation, he stepped forward and delivered another precise flying kick, the instep “gently” kissing the back of Swan’s head to make sure the guy would stay even deeper in his coma.
“Hiss—Senior! Why did you kick him again?!” Luke felt a sympathetic ache at the back of his own head, sucking in a sharp breath.
Ize (righteously): “To make sure he’s sleeping deep enough, so he doesn’t wake up halfway and complicate things.” Feeling it still wasn’t safe, and out of a sense of rigorous responsibility (and to vent his frustration), he gave Swan a few more kicks, then signaled to Luke: “You, carry him.”
Luke bared his teeth in pain as he slung Swan over his shoulder, muttering, “Senior, if you wanted him knocked out, couldn’t you use a sleep spell? Why do it… physically?”
Ize shrugged, his tone completely natural. “I don’t know how.”
Luke nearly tripped: “…But I do!”
Ize: “You never said so.”
Luke protested, “You never asked!”
Ize accepted it readily and nodded. “Very well, then start casting sleep magic on him, stack it up a bit, just in case.”
Luke: “……” He glanced at the obvious bumps swelling up on Swan’s head, then closed his mouth, deciding magic would probably be overkill.
On the way back to the Academy via teleportation array, Luke seemed to recall something. With an expression that screamed “I get it now,” he suggested, “Senior, shouldn’t we go straight to Dean Kleia and report this? The Xis family has already bullied their way to our Academy’s doorstep, that’s unbearable! The Dean will definitely—”
“Shut up!” Ize nearly jumped in fright, a chill running from his soles to his skull. He jerked his head around, the eyes beneath his mask as cold as ice picks. “If you run to Kleia now and snitch, do you want me to die even faster?”
Luke shrank back under the shout, confused. “How could that be… The Dean knows how amazing you are; she’ll definitely cultivate you heavily… With your talent, Senior, it won’t be long before your reputation surpasses that of Senior Sara!”
“Cultivate my ass!” Ize almost couldn’t keep up his girlish voice, he was so angry. “How do I explain I managed to save Swan from the Xis family’s hands? How do I explain I caught sword aura bare-handed? How do I explain my ‘utterly mediocre’ Tier-2 Magus strength?! Are you hoping the Dean will dissect me for research?!”
Seeing Ize’s “say one more word and I’ll silence you” glare, Luke finally behaved, clamping his mouth shut and using his eyes to express his “loyalty.”
They slipped back into the Academy via the teleportation array without a sound, but Ize’s mind was working at lightning speed.
Something’s wrong! How did those two half-witted Xis family members get past the Starshine Academy’s magical barriers and patrols, corner Swan, and even chase him all the way to the commercial district?
There had to be something fishy behind this!
Arriving at Swan’s dorm—being the Dean’s direct disciple, Swan also had his own standalone cottage, protected by the Academy’s basic defensive magic array. Ize didn’t go in immediately but stopped and observed with the vigilance of a hunting hound.
Over the years, the system’s random points had sometimes landed on [Array] talent. Though he wasn’t systematic, his eyes had grown sharp.
His gaze swept over and quickly confirmed that only the Academy’s standard defensive array surrounded the house, with no extra, privately-added hidden restrictions.
He stretched out a finger and casually traced a few strokes in the air, as if entering some invisible code. The faint magical shimmer parted, quietly opening a gap.
Ize slipped in first.
Luke followed, carrying Swan on his back and whispering nervously, “Senior… Isn’t this breaking school rules, barging in like this?”
“It’s just the three of us, and the victim’s still unconscious,” Ize whispered. “We slip in quietly, and slip out quietly. When he wakes, at most he’ll think he had a nightmare of being chased and beaten. It’ll be like nothing ever happened—perfect!”
He spoke as he quickly scanned Swan’s room.
The furnishings inside were extremely simple, even sparse. Apart from the standard Academy furniture, there were almost no personal items, giving off an intentionally low-key and… empty vibe.
Just as Ize was about to order Luke to dump Swan on the bed and beat a fast retreat, his gaze abruptly fixed on a tightly closed door beside the bedroom.
This door looked ordinary, but at the point where doorframe met wall, there faintly flowed incredibly subtle, complex magical lines!
It was a highly sophisticated array for concealment and sealing! If Ize didn’t have his “specialized” skill in arrays, he would’ve never noticed!
What made Ize’s hair stand on end was that, from the crack under the door, a cold, chaotic energy faintly leaked out—definitely not a human mage’s aura, but… the aura of a magical beast! Though incredibly faint, fiercely suppressed by the array, he couldn’t be mistaken!
What the hell?!
Alarm bells exploded in Ize’s head! And just then, that persistent system prompt chimed in again like a death sentence:
[Divine Choice System at your service. Please make your choice promptly, Host.]
[Option 1: Immediately report the existence of magical beast aura and hidden arrays in Swan’s dorm to Dean Kleia. Difficulty: S. Reward: Protagonist Points +10]
[Option 2: Force open the hidden array and investigate inside. Difficulty: S. Reward: Antagonist Points +10]
[Option 3: Pretend you saw nothing, leave quickly, and settle Swan down. Difficulty: C. Reward: NPC Points +10]
Looking at those three options in his vision, especially the glaring C-rank, Ize almost coughed up blood.
Even playing dumb is C-rank difficulty?!
Is this the butterfly effect triggered by saving Swan?!
A C-rank here meant that from the moment he stepped in and noticed this secret, danger had already latched onto him like a shadow—impossible to shake off!
Kleia! Just what did you take in back then?!
Ize roared inside.
Swan’s danger and weirdness instantly surpassed all the heroines Ize knew—taking the top spot on his “Most To Be Avoided” list!
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to bolt.
Can’t panic! The more dangerous it is, the calmer I have to be!
He decisively picked the C-rank—ignore it! Must ignore it! The more you know, the quicker you die!
He stiffly turned his head, resolutely ignoring that creepy door. Pushing open the bedroom door, he urged Luke, “Stop dawdling, just toss him on the bed, and let’s get out! Every extra second here could spell trouble!”
Luke obediently threw Swan onto the bed, even “thoughtfully” pulling the blanket over him.
Watching this, Ize’s lips twitched—You say this oaf is careless, but he even knows to cover him up; you say he’s attentive, yet Swan’s shoes are still on!
“Our goal is to make him think he just had a nightmare,” Ize muttered, suppressing his distaste. He quickly pulled off Swan’s shoes and set them neatly by the bed, trying to create the illusion of a “normal night’s sleep.”
“Senior, I think your logic’s got a hole in it,” Luke pointed at Swan’s bruised and swollen face (especially the enormous lump on the back of his head, courtesy of Ize). “Who has a nightmare and wakes up all black and blue, head covered in bumps?”
Ize: “……” He awkwardly scratched at his mask. “Minor issue, just minor issue!”
With that, he let his mana flow, a gentle white light gathering in his palm before enveloping Swan—a basic light-element healing spell, .
“Sen…ior…!!” Luke’s voice cracked in astonishment. “You have light element affinity too?!”
Light and dark elements—recognized as the Empire’s rarest, hardest-to-awaken affinities!
Not one in ten thousand! And light mages are unparalleled in healing and purification, with the highest status!
“Senior! Is your light affinity off the charts?! This healing is amazing!” Luke stared wide-eyed as Swan’s bruises visibly faded and disappeared.
The higher your elemental affinity, the stronger your spells’ effects.
And the easier it is to learn high-level spells of that type.
Ize shook his head, tone flat. “No, just five percent, same as all my other elemental affinities.”
He wasn’t lying. His light affinity really was a pitiful five percent—officially “trash” tier.
As for why the effect looked so “outstanding”…
Because, just now, though it seemed he only cast one [Healing Spell]…
In reality, relying on the system’s absurd mana reserve and mental control, he forcibly layered the lowest-tier healing spell ten times in under half a second!
Quantity, transformed into quality.
Filling the gap of talent with a sea of mana—this was Ize’s unique, “utterly mediocre” trick.